The Nameless
by Liber-T.E.A
Summary: A short fic based on the game "Exit Path" on Armor Games.  My take on what happens after the ending.
1. Running

This story is just based on some inspiration I had when I was playing Exit Path on Armor Games. Enjoy.

I don't own Exit Path.

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Onwards I ran, past the City Limits. I ran, and I ran, and I didn't stop running, even from fatigue.

I could still hear the sounds of that damned City behind me, it's citizens cheering while men and women like me were being slaughtered for sport. I didn't look back, instead looking at the forest in front of me.

Back there...it was awful. We were handpicked from the population, the so-called "cream of the crop" of it's citizenry. We were truly blind, and the rulers and politicians were truly magnificent bastards. They kidnapped us, tortured us, brainwashed us, and forced us to virtually kill ourselves to keep the population happy and sated.

I was one of them once, one of the stupid ones...or at least, I think I was. Even though I have no memories anymore, I couldn't help but feel something when I looked at those cheering crowds, like I had been there.

I'm nobody now. Just a number: 5H9G1I2X. That number is tattooed on my arm, forever branding me as a victim.

Today, I woke up after a particularly vicious "training session", where myself and several others were injected with something that made our whole bodies burn with white-hot pain. Then, we were forced to run, and run, and run until our legs gave out and we fell down in pain. We were then beaten savagely, and I can't remember anymore after that.

I woke up in a bed, which was odd considering that we were forced to sleep on cold, hard concrete floors. I got up, and I moved onwards.

This whole day was horrible. Especially when I got to the room that promised me freedom. Those words, "THERE IS NO FREEDOM", written in blood...bring chills to my spine when ever I remember them. As I looked towards the path I was supposed to take, I remember my blood boiling in rage. I would get out, and I would have my revenge.

Someday, perhaps, but not today. Right now, I'm just going to keep running.


	2. Emotions

Many days later, I finally stopped running. I guess it was due to all of that "training" that I received, or maybe it was just sheer determination, but I couldn't even see the City anymore.

I found a small clearing next to a stream, and I decided that I would rest there. My legs felt like rubber, and my stamina was spent.

I found a rock, and I laid my head on it.

I slept, and my dreams were filled with horrible images. However, one stood out over all: her.

You see, back in the City during "training", I met a girl. I don't know her name, and neither did she, but we knew her as BP362ACJ. It's funny that I can't remember my own real name, but I can remember all the numbers of my fellow victims.

She was no ordinary victim, or at least...not to me. We became close friends, and I soon fell in love with her...but it was not to be.

Several days before my turn, she was put through the Game. I didn't get to see it myself, but I didn't need to. No one, or at least no one that I ever heard of, had ever escaped. Sure, people did technically "win the Game", but none of the winners were ever heard of again.

So, for several hours, I cried. I screamed my anguish to the heavens. I cursed those who had ruined my life, and I cursed those who took her from me.

It was a long night.


	3. Discovery

After that night, I felt so hopeless. I had nowhere to go, and I was probably going to die out here. So, I did the only thing I could do, and I started to run.

I don't know how far I ran, or for how long, but I eventually got tired of running. I was hungry, thirsty, and sore. My mind was a mess, and I was ready to die.

However, like a saving grace or a sign of a higher power, I saw what I considered to be a miracle: smoke. That meant that there were people nearby.

I did think for a second that it probably was a bad idea to rush towards the fire, but I decided that I was going to die anyways, so why not take that chance?

As I walked up towards the smoke, I finally saw it. The camp was primitive, but the people looked friendly. I walked closer, and I saw the fire.

I smiled, but then I felt a massive surge of pain in my back, and I blacked out.

When I came to, I was lying on a bed. I looked around, and I saw that there was food and water next to me. My body, which was covered in cuts and bruises from the nonstop running and the Game itself, was bandaged.

It was then that I noticed that I wasn't alone. A nurse of some sort was working on the other side of the room on what I guessed was medicine. I had a massive headache, and I probably had a fever. None of my wounds from the Game were ever treated, so I can imagine that at least one of them became infected.

I tried to move, but my whole body hurt. I groaned in pain, and that attracted the attention of the nurse.

She then turned around, and my jaw dropped. It was her.


	4. Love

My mind was fuzzy. How could she possibly be alive? I needed answers.

My first question to her was simple: How did you survive? She sat down next to me, grabbed the bowl of water next to me, and brought it to my lips to drink. As I did so, and I was pretty thirsty, she smiled and told me that she survived the same way as I did. However, she also mentioned that she was probably the first to survive that particular City's Game.

My head was filled with questions, and I told her so. She nodded, and she helped me eat. I would have done it myself, but my arms were bandaged, and I was just happy to lie there and be with her.

The next question I asked was another simple one: How was she so sure that she was the first? She then motioned towards the door, and she said that out of all the survivors in this village, we were the only ones from that City. The others came from various other Cities, and they had arrived here much as we had.

A thought then came to me. If she was the first to survive, then who wrote that message. Who wrote "THERE IS NO FREEDOM"? She pulled up her sleeve, and she revealed a long scar. Apparently, she had moved through that room slowly, for she didn't trust that place. It was a good thing too, because she almost fell in to that deadly pit. Finding a piece of jagged metal, she cut her own arm, and she wrote that haunting message in her own blood to warn future victims.

My next questions were a little harder: How many Cities are there? How many of these Cities play these Games? She looked down, and she answered that she didn't know. No one here knew.

I thought deeply for a second, and I asked my last question: What hit me as I entered this village? She chuckled, and she told me that the guards here routinely do that to intruders. I was cleared, however, due to my tattoo, and now I was free to do what I liked.

I sat back, trying to take it all in. She, noticing my conflicting emotions, put her arms around me. I blushed, and I put my arm around her.

I don't know what possessed me to utter those three words, but the effect it had on her was incredible. Those three words, "I love you", made her look up at me with her beautiful, soulful eyes, and smile. She said them back to me, and she kissed me. We kissed with all of the passion we had in us. Time stood still, and we were in paradise.


	5. Hope

A year later, I was invited to a meeting of several major village leaders. I had become very welcome in the village, and I had shown the intellect and bravery of a leader.

In this meeting, leaders of this village and several others nearby discussed plans to rescue the other victims of the oppressive Cities. One of the other village leaders had mentioned knowledge of trade routes between a few Cities. He had also said that he could get some of their weapons from this.

A plan was made based on this. We decided that we would occasionally ambush and steal weapons from convoys, build up stockpiles, and create a loose confederacy of nearby villages. We would team up and take the weakest nearby City, and we would liberate the world from tyranny from there. Then, we would have peace.

The first attack was supposed to take place later that week, but it would take that long to get to the ambush point. I walked over to my hut, and I went in to a familiar sight.

My wife and newborn daughter were dozing on the bed, a smile on her face. She woke up when I walked in, and I gave her a kiss. I then whispered that I was going to be gone for two weeks. She gave me a look of sadness, but I assured her that I would be back. I then kissed her forehead, as well as my daughter.

I decided from that moment on that I would do this, not for me, but for my daughter and all the other children of the survivors. It was their world, and it was up to us to make it fit for them.

* * *

So, there you go.

This will probably be my last work for at least a week. I just had a death in my family, and I will be on only sparingly for the next week or two.

Please review!


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